The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared

For the film based on the novel, see The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared (film)

The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared

The cover of the Swedish original version of the book.
Author	Jonas Jonasson
Original title	Hundraåringen som klev ut genom fönstret och försvann
Translator	Rod Bradbury
Cover artist	Eric Thunfors
Country	Sweden
Language	Swedish
Publisher	Piratförlaget, Hyperion Books
Publication date	9 September 2009
Published in English	12 July 2012
Pages	391 pages
ISBN	978-91-642-0296-3
OCLC	778416495
Dewey Decimal	839.73
LC Class	PT9877.2.O537 H8513
Followed by	The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden

The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared (Swedish: Hundraåringen som klev ut genom fönstret och försvann, also known as The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared (UK)^[1] and The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared in the US) is a 2009 comic novel by the Swedish author Jonas Jonasson.

Plot

Allan Karlsson is about to celebrate his hundredth birthday, and a party is planned at his retirement home. Allan is alert despite his age, but is not interested in attending the party. Instead he climbs out the window and disappears. He walks in his slippers to the nearest bus station, intending to travel as far as his available cash will allow. While at the bus station, he meets an angry young man with a suitcase so big that he can't get into the lavatory and take it with him. He desperately asks Allan to hold the case for him and wait. Within half a minute, Allan's bus arrives and Allan boards it, taking the suitcase with him onto the bus. However, the young man misses the bus. The suitcase turns out to be stuffed with drug dealers' money; Karlsson is chased by the dealers trying to recover their lost cash. Meanwhile, the retirement home calls the police to search for Allan. The police have no knowledge of the money and are only looking for Allan, who is known to be somewhat absent minded. However, Allan is simply trying to escape his retirement home confinement. He gets caught up in criminal activity by accident and ends up, unknown to him, being hunted by both the police and a gang of murderous criminals.

While dealing with Karlsson's adventures as a centenarian, the novel also provides flashbacks to increasingly fantastic episodes from his long life. As it proceeds, we learn that Karlsson had helped to make the atom bomb, became good friends with Harry S. Truman and General Franco, knew Stalin, Kim Jong-il, Mao Tse-tung, and Soong Mei-ling, hung out with Albert Einstein's less intelligent brother, foiled an assassination plot against Winston Churchill, and was a participant behind the scenes in many of the key events of the twentieth century.

Release and reception

The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared was released as hardback and audiobook in 2009, and as paperback in 2010.^[2] It became the best selling book in Sweden in 2010 and by July 2012 had sold three million copies worldwide.^[3] The audiobook, read by the actor Björn Granath, won the Iris Ljudbokspris award in 2010.^[4] The book was published in the United Kingdom by Hesperus Press on 12 July 2012^[5] and in the United States by Hyperion Books on 11 September 2012.

In 2013, it was adapted into a film of the same name.

On August 23, 2017, it was announced that CBS Films will collaborate with Gary Sanchez Productions in order to produce an American adaptation of the book. Will Ferrell will star in the film, and it will be produced by Ferrell along with Adam McKay and Jessica Elbaum. The screenplay will be written by Jason George.^[6]

References